35,000-Year-Old Flute Is Oldest Music Instrument Ever Found

Omomyid writes "The AFP is reporting the discovery of a 35,000 year-old flute, made from a vulture wing bone. The context described makes it sound like a musician's shop. There were also fragments of ivory-based flutes and flint tools. Being at least 35KYO this bone flute beats the previous oldest-known musical instrument by at least 5,000 years and puts it very close to the beginning of the Aurignacian culture."

Comments

My Heavens!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

That flute is -29,000 years old!

This one time

[Anonymous Coward]

This one time, 35,000 years ago at band camp...

I doubt it's the oldest

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet people have been playing the skin flute for far longer

Oblig YEC reesponse

[MaXintosh]

Obviously, the flute was burried by the flood. Because like dinosaurs, flutes were put there by the devil to fool us. Thus the phrase "devil music."

Re:Oblig YEC reesponse

[rubycodez]

agreed. and if you listen to the 35,000 year old flute music backwards, you can hear satanic incantations hidden by "backwards boneflute masking"

Re:Oblig YEC reesponse

[Dunbal]

And if you filmed the discovery of this flute and play it backwards, you see a team of scientist burying a flute for 35,000 years only to have it discovered by some primitive human, who then picks it up and starts playing it....

Complex vs Simple.

[B5_geek]

I understand that this could be considered definitive proof of an 'instrument', but surely they don't discount that beating two sticks together can be considered as being musical either.

Consider this: prehistoric man had to be MORE intelligent to survive then modern man. If all electrical devices stop working tomorrow, a significant % of the population will be dead within 4 weeks.

Re:Complex vs Simple.

[pluther]

That doesn't point to a difference in intelligence, just a different set of needed skills.

Cave Geeks?

[filesiteguy]

So, does this mean that the term "band geek" was discovered 35,000 years ago?

I wonder if they wore underwear so that Ogg could give the owner of this flute a wedgie.

Needs some inner light ...

[xleeko]

Psssft. Get back to me when the grad student who dug it out collapses into a coma and lives a lifetime as a paleolithic hunter, then wakes up and can play some good mammoth hunting songs ...

Re:Interesting!

[SlashDotDotDot]

For what it's worth, the New York Times article about it has an audio clip of a replica being played. I think it sounds surprisingly good.

Friedrich Seeberger, a German specialist in ancient music, reproduced the ivory flute in wood. Experimenting with the replica, he found that the ancient flute produced a range of notes comparable in many ways to modern flutes. "The tones are quite harmonic," he said.

Re:Flute

[sexconker]

Fail.
Pelvis was obliterated due to snu-snu.

I'd like some hot chicks (and other flute jokes)

[geekoid]

to date my bone flute.
*giggity*

How did they know it was a flute? There were carvings on the wall from people whining they could ahve done it better/

How did they get two flutes in tune? they bashed the skull in of one of the bone flautists.

Why did the neanderthal go extinct? to get away from the flute recital.

How many bone Flautists did it taker to start a fire? 2 one to do it and another to push them into the fire.

What do you call a flute that's been buried for 35000 years? A good start.

2 flutists ride a mammoth over a cliff, what's the tragedy? you can fit 4 flutists on a mammoth.

I can go on, but unlike a flautists I know when to stop.

Minor correction

[geekoid]

"...who then picks it up and starts playing it....badly"